March 6, 2013

Driving traffic can be confusing, can’t it? Everyone seems to be wanting to sell their “latest and greatest” method of driving traffic.

One thing that seems to be missing in the talk about traffic online is the ability to see the big picture.

At the end of the day, there are only two ways to get traffic. You earn it or you buy it.

So it’s time for a little common sense and a look at the big picture of getting traffic. Today we’ll glance at 22 proven ways to get traffic the old fashioned way… by earning it. This is just an overview, but I’ll get more in depth with each topic in later articles.

The key to succeeding with free traffic methods is to choose one you enjoy and master it.

Let’s take a look at three major ways to get traffic by earning it, and the specific techniques that come from those choices.

Traffic Moves In Streams

When Bob Allen asked me to help him write “Multiple Streams of Internet Income” I was honored. But only when I read the finished work did I realize his true genius. He had summed up many methods of getting traffic and put them into a mental picture anyone could grasp in an instant… a great ocean of prospects flowing into a series of streams (a sales funnel) that created sales automatically.

To keep this as simple as possible I’m dividing my 22 proven methods into three themes:

* Publishing* Broadcasting* Collaboration

Your goal should not be to do all of these at one time. Find the one you like best and make it work for you.

Publish

You must publish, in order to succeed, online.

Happily, you can be a great publisher without being a great writer.

There are many ways to publish information online. We know that there is an almost endless supply of people searching for things…for information.

If you become the person who provides the information – be that by writing or by curating or aggregating – you will succeed. If you doubt that, check out the top blogs online. Guys like John Chow now charge $500 to simply review a product on their blog. Is it worth the price? In many cases it is.

Here are the most proven ways to publish online in my experience along with a couple of tips below the list about which work best for most people.

I’ve done all of these and continue to use most of these methods today.

In my view blogging is the best way to start. It’s easy to set up and maintain. You can hire it done on sites like eLance or use a service like TypePad. One of my favorite marketers, Seth Godin, has used TypePad for years. So don’t think that using a service will limit you, because it won’t. For many it’s the best way to go.

Find the method you like!

If you like doing something you will keep doing it and it will become profitable the more you do it.

Big time bloggers like Chris Brogan or Brian Clark blog for profit now but they started with passion. If you follow your passion the profits will come!

The beautiful thing about the Internet is that there is an audience for almost any topic. Even if you never create a single product of your own, you can make money by providing your audience with the information they crave. When you do that consistently you become a trusted advisor, and people will buy what you recommend.

Broadcast

One HUGE key to succeeding with broadcasting is to repurpose your articles into videos, podcasts and more.

You never know how people will want to consume your information, so after you have created (or collected) your content repurpose it into another format and gain even more audience!

Turning your articles into videos and putting them on YouTube or Vimeo is super easy and fast. Likewise, having video content transcribed and then making that into a great article is easy and fast as well.

Another idea – transcribe webinar replays (with permission of course) into a series of articles or a short report. Give the report away and you can build your list faster and make more sales than ever.

I use this technique often. It works!

Here are the most proven broadcast methods in my view:

* Video* Webinars* Teleseminars* Podcasting

If you are an active marketer now, then repurposing and broadcasting the information you already have can help you reach an audience you might never reach otherwise. Some people love video, some hate it, so why not appeal to all by providing both.

This is the best way to get marketing leverage that I know — do the work once and reach many audiences by taking a tiny bit of time to rework your ideas into new formats. Beautiful!

Collaborate

Another way to get great leverage is to work with others. We all know about joint ventures but there is more, much more, to working with others than doing things like ad swaps. Here are my favorites.

If you have a powerful presence on social media, people will want to reach your audience. They’ll offer you money to do so.

I believe social media is the best place to start connecting. Start simple with Facebook and Twitter and move on once you have the routine in place. Just sharing what you are doing is not enough on social media – you need to think about your audience every time you share.

Action Steps

You might be thinking “pretty good article but what do I do now?”

Here are three suggestions…

1. When you publish anything – articles, videos, audio, anything – spend time (today!) thinking about how you can repurpose it into new content.

2. Follow your bliss. I know it’s easy for me to say that because I’m doing well and can follow my bliss all I want. But if you know me, you know that it has not always been that way, and I’m here to tell you that I got here by following my bliss. The article you are reading right now is what I wanted to do – so I did.

3. Choose one method and master it. Far too many people become discouraged after following a “guru” and ending up with nothing. Once you become interested in something, learn more about that topic.

* Who is using it well?* How is it working for them?* How can you emulate their success?* What is the #1 free resource about the topic online?* What is the #1 paid resource about the topic online?* How can you get help if you need help?

Learning more and making a game plan will be necessary. But these methods can work if you work them. That much I know.

Think about this – how long have you been trying to make money online? Now what if you had been able to start with a clear direction, a proven roadmap that would take you from newbie to where you want to be?

That would be a gift, and a blessing.

Give yourself that gift today. Follow your passion, choose your methods and commit to excellence. Then watch as what you need comes your way while you are working hard at helping others.

It’s called the flow, and I know you can get there. It is worth the work it will take to get there because…

Being in the flow is a beautiful thing indeed!

Charlie Page owns the Directory of Ezines and is the author of 10 books about Internet marketing. Through his membership sites and personal consulting, Charlie helps people achieve their goal of independence in record time. Can Charlie help you? Find out at www.CharliePage.com

50 Responses to “Free Traffic: 22 Methods That Really Work”

Blogging, Microblogging(twitter so Popular now a days for generating Traffic), SEO your blog and RSS feeds, Pod casts, Pinging, Directory submissions, And one thing you must not forget Traffic Exchange and PTC options

You have to be really careful using Traffic Exchange and PTC, espc with Google Adsense. You could lose everything if you did this. If all you are after is hits, then that is fine, but if you need real traffic, with real customers behind it, these methods will not work.

Hi,
that’s a really very good post and the best is – it works the way as you describe. I started by blog only 4 months ago – I love what I do and just put it on my blog – sure, it’s hard work and you invest a lot of time in it – I don’t know if I ever will earn money with it, but I will go on as I love it, it’s my life and everyone shall know and will see – the best reward today are the comments of every subscriber they are leaving on my post and that makes me happy and keeps me going on – I’m looking forward what’s comming next.
Slava

Visual (seeing) and auditory (listening) or kinesthetic (touching, experiencing) are three ways of learning and also teaching. So to drive traffic the mentioned three factors are very important. Great share.

Very nice, well rounded article. I think there is something for everybody within this article that will be of use to them.
I am particularly interested in the part that deals with turning your written posts into video.
I definitely think that this is the way to proceed and the main way to increase traffic at the moment.

Dear Charlie,
Many thanks for a very good summary of the things we can do to increase our traffic. As you see, we are always looking for every available information on how to get better traffic and articles like your’s are really helpful. Check our site I’ll give a review of your methods

Another good way for people to make their posts more interesting is to add funny pictures. I went to images on google and I found some cartoons to add on my posts and I added a funny caption on them. This way it gives people something to laugh about.

Dear Charlie,
Many thanks for a very good summary of the things we can do to increase our traffic. As you see, we are always looking for every available information on how to get better traffic and articles like your’s are really helpful. Check our site I’ll give a review of your methods

Good stuff! Here’s a tip for turning articles/blog posts into (Youtube videos): Copy your article into a Powerpoint presentation and save it as a video. Find a nice PP “theme” and make sure you add your links as well.

You can also use the same PP presentation to make a PDF and submit it to for instance issuu. Make a regular PP and submit it to for instance slideshare.

Making YouTube videos was one of the best things I did for my website. The video About Me describes a lot on what I went through being deaf. And I included the links to my websites on the videos. The videos are on my blogs also at http://deaf47.blogspot.com/ That is me in the video on the top post teaching sign language.

Very nice, well rounded article. I think there is something for everybody within this article that will be of use to them.
I am particularly interested in the part that deals with turning your written posts into video.
I definitely think that this is the way to proceed and the main way to increase traffic at the moment.

Another good way to get constant traffic is to make buttons for your blog, so that others can grab and paste it onto their website. I have three buttons on the bottom right side of my blog at http://deaf47.blogspot.com/. Anyone can grab the code from one of my buttons there and paste it onto their website. That way they will get more traffic coming from my blog to theirs, more new visitors.

I use a program called tweeter adder which autopilot send tweets everyday. This is a great source for adding traffic to your site. It great because even when your not working online it does it automatic for you.

Great site! Thanks for posting these great tips. Another great way to drive traffic is using social media. I used Only wire. Every time I update an article it automatically adds it to all my social sites.

Hi Charlie, thanks for the great article!
You ideas really give me some new thought. All the time I’ve been focusing on articles, now I guess it’s time to try something new, some other formats and resources, thanks again!

Thanks for this honest insight. Many of us know bits and pieces of the information that you have provided but now the whole picture is clear. It is a tedious and time consuming task no doubt, but encouraging posts like yours gives the rest a push to get going with it.

Quick P.S I have gotten my site to the top of Google if a city is put in such as Ventura window cleaning, or washing, cleaners etc.

It’s when someone just puts in window cleaning, cleaner, or pressure washing. As far as Bing and Yahoo are concerned I’m top on any kind of search for what I do. It’s Google that is driving me nuts. All Panda’s must die

Great article. It just shows how many different things you can do to get more traffic, all of which are genuine and rely on you EARNING that traffic rather than buying it. Far more satisfying and helps to maintain the quality of your site.

I like your tip about choosing a strategy and master it. That’s what I did with SEO. I can’t say I’m a master at seo but I definitely know a thing or two about ranking in search engines which in my opinion generate the most targeted traffic.

I also love creating videos and uploading them on Youtube. I do that whenever I’m writing a tutorial for using a software or a service. It’s great for affiliate sales too.

But never thought about transcribing webinars. That sounds like an awesome idea and I might give it a try. Do you think I need the permission of the webinar’s host to do that and post it on my blog? That could also be a great link bait post, maybe I could get a link on the webinar page?Hmm…

Have a great day Charlie, and thanks for sharing these strategies.Cheers.

Getting traffic is one of the biggest challenge for new web sites. There is so much competition out there. These tips will help build a foundation on where to start getting more traffic. Sometimes I wish it was easier, but in reality it does take a lot of time and effort.

Growing traffic can be very challenging in the beginning of a new site. I really enjoy reading all the tips you guys mentioned. For majority of my traffic I always use Social Media as a platform to drive traffic. I personally create Fan page at Facebook. Any time I post a new article I will place a copy on my Facebook page.